Classification: Murderer
Characteristics: Parricide - Dismemberment
Number of victims: 1
Date of murder: December 18, 1884
Date of arrest: January 16, 1885
Date of birth: 1847
Victim profile: William Druse, 60 (her husband)
Method of murder: Beating with an axe
Location: Herkimer County, New York, USA
Status: Executed by hanging on February 28, 1887
Roxalana Druse (1847 – February 28, 1887) was the last woman hanged in the state of New York. Her botched execution resulted in the decision to replace the gallows with the electric chair in 1890.
Druse beat her husband William Druse to death with a axe but shooting him first with a .22 caliber. The murder continued with the help of her daughter Mary who supposedly wrapped rope around her father's neck and pulled him to the floor and her nephew Frank Gates who said that Roxalana forced him to shoot William or she would shoot him. She then chopped up the body with the assistance of her daughter and burned the pieces. Druse alleged her motive was that her husband was abusive to her and was not supporting the family for he left for a amount of days after an argument.
Execution
When Druse was sentenced to death, Herkimer County, New York state used suspension hanging for executions.
The process jerked the prisoner upwards by a weighted rope instead of the body dropping downwards through a trap door. But as Druce was a small woman, the force failed to break her neck leaving her to die agonizingly by strangulation.
The scene was so upsetting, officials decided to switch the primary method of execution in the state to the electric chair.
***********************************************************************************************
Unfortunately, Oak Hill does not have the older burial records, they had a fire in the old office quite some time ago and all of them were lost.
Being orphaned by age 10, with no other relatives who took care of her, depending on the local community to survive, having killed her husband, the oldest daughter, Mary incarcerated in Syracuse, there would have been no one to erect a stone for her.
Characteristics: Parricide - Dismemberment
Number of victims: 1
Date of murder: December 18, 1884
Date of arrest: January 16, 1885
Date of birth: 1847
Victim profile: William Druse, 60 (her husband)
Method of murder: Beating with an axe
Location: Herkimer County, New York, USA
Status: Executed by hanging on February 28, 1887
Roxalana Druse (1847 – February 28, 1887) was the last woman hanged in the state of New York. Her botched execution resulted in the decision to replace the gallows with the electric chair in 1890.
Druse beat her husband William Druse to death with a axe but shooting him first with a .22 caliber. The murder continued with the help of her daughter Mary who supposedly wrapped rope around her father's neck and pulled him to the floor and her nephew Frank Gates who said that Roxalana forced him to shoot William or she would shoot him. She then chopped up the body with the assistance of her daughter and burned the pieces. Druse alleged her motive was that her husband was abusive to her and was not supporting the family for he left for a amount of days after an argument.
Execution
When Druse was sentenced to death, Herkimer County, New York state used suspension hanging for executions.
The process jerked the prisoner upwards by a weighted rope instead of the body dropping downwards through a trap door. But as Druce was a small woman, the force failed to break her neck leaving her to die agonizingly by strangulation.
The scene was so upsetting, officials decided to switch the primary method of execution in the state to the electric chair.
***********************************************************************************************
Unfortunately, Oak Hill does not have the older burial records, they had a fire in the old office quite some time ago and all of them were lost.
Being orphaned by age 10, with no other relatives who took care of her, depending on the local community to survive, having killed her husband, the oldest daughter, Mary incarcerated in Syracuse, there would have been no one to erect a stone for her.
Classification: Murderer
Characteristics: Parricide - Dismemberment
Number of victims: 1
Date of murder: December 18, 1884
Date of arrest: January 16, 1885
Date of birth: 1847
Victim profile: William Druse, 60 (her husband)
Method of murder: Beating with an axe
Location: Herkimer County, New York, USA
Status: Executed by hanging on February 28, 1887
Roxalana Druse (1847 – February 28, 1887) was the last woman hanged in the state of New York. Her botched execution resulted in the decision to replace the gallows with the electric chair in 1890.
Druse beat her husband William Druse to death with a axe but shooting him first with a .22 caliber. The murder continued with the help of her daughter Mary who supposedly wrapped rope around her father's neck and pulled him to the floor and her nephew Frank Gates who said that Roxalana forced him to shoot William or she would shoot him. She then chopped up the body with the assistance of her daughter and burned the pieces. Druse alleged her motive was that her husband was abusive to her and was not supporting the family for he left for a amount of days after an argument.
Execution
When Druse was sentenced to death, Herkimer County, New York state used suspension hanging for executions.
The process jerked the prisoner upwards by a weighted rope instead of the body dropping downwards through a trap door. But as Druce was a small woman, the force failed to break her neck leaving her to die agonizingly by strangulation.
The scene was so upsetting, officials decided to switch the primary method of execution in the state to the electric chair.
***********************************************************************************************
Unfortunately, Oak Hill does not have the older burial records, they had a fire in the old office quite some time ago and all of them were lost.
Being orphaned by age 10, with no other relatives who took care of her, depending on the local community to survive, having killed her husband, the oldest daughter, Mary incarcerated in Syracuse, there would have been no one to erect a stone for her.
Characteristics: Parricide - Dismemberment
Number of victims: 1
Date of murder: December 18, 1884
Date of arrest: January 16, 1885
Date of birth: 1847
Victim profile: William Druse, 60 (her husband)
Method of murder: Beating with an axe
Location: Herkimer County, New York, USA
Status: Executed by hanging on February 28, 1887
Roxalana Druse (1847 – February 28, 1887) was the last woman hanged in the state of New York. Her botched execution resulted in the decision to replace the gallows with the electric chair in 1890.
Druse beat her husband William Druse to death with a axe but shooting him first with a .22 caliber. The murder continued with the help of her daughter Mary who supposedly wrapped rope around her father's neck and pulled him to the floor and her nephew Frank Gates who said that Roxalana forced him to shoot William or she would shoot him. She then chopped up the body with the assistance of her daughter and burned the pieces. Druse alleged her motive was that her husband was abusive to her and was not supporting the family for he left for a amount of days after an argument.
Execution
When Druse was sentenced to death, Herkimer County, New York state used suspension hanging for executions.
The process jerked the prisoner upwards by a weighted rope instead of the body dropping downwards through a trap door. But as Druce was a small woman, the force failed to break her neck leaving her to die agonizingly by strangulation.
The scene was so upsetting, officials decided to switch the primary method of execution in the state to the electric chair.
***********************************************************************************************
Unfortunately, Oak Hill does not have the older burial records, they had a fire in the old office quite some time ago and all of them were lost.
Being orphaned by age 10, with no other relatives who took care of her, depending on the local community to survive, having killed her husband, the oldest daughter, Mary incarcerated in Syracuse, there would have been no one to erect a stone for her.
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